The Importance of Starting with Keyword Research for Website Success


Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Did you know most business owners fail to consider keyword research when planning their website?

But the importance of keyword research cannot be overlooked if you want to create helpful content for your audience.

It’s like building a house without a blueprint. You wouldn’t do it, because the project would fail and cost you more in money, time and energy. And how would you know what you’re building without a blueprint anyway?

The same logic applies to your website. 

Construction plans rely heavily on the blueprint as the foundation for the entire planning process. Websites rely heavily on keyword research to drive the content strategy and ensure tangible results.

If you want your business to be found online, there’s more to the puzzle than the layout and web copy. The purpose of keyword research is to unlock deeper insights into your users and the queries they’re searching for online. It’s essential for streamlining your site, keeping your content on track and your brand and audience in focus. Yet business owners too often leave it until after the design and content. You put your website or new content together, then optimise it.  

But keyword research is not an ‘after’ tactic. 


When Should You Perform Keyword Research?

Before you start designing your website or writing new copy.

Prioritising keyword research helps map your audience’s journey. When you skip this process (or do it later), you miss valuable insights about what your users want. Without clear direction, how do match their search query with the appropriate content on your site? 

While it’s possible to go back and implement keywords once the content is written, you’ll need to reconfigure a lot of the development work already done. 

For example; changing the IA (Information Architecture) and setting up redirects. You’ll also miss out on organic traffic, making your website and copy a waste if the right people aren’t finding it. 


Is Keyword Research Still Important?

Yes!

The most obvious benefit of keyword research is it helps people find your business online. On a wider scale, it’s important for cutting through the noise and understanding your audience to write the right content for them. 

There are over 3 billion users online. Even if you only wanted to reach 500, you still need a performing website to stand out from the competition – one that’s optimised for your audience and Google. 

Keyword research for SEO benefits business owners in the following ways:

Drives Your Marketing Efforts

Keywords give you a deeper understanding of your audience’s behaviour, the type of content they need and how it all fits in the buying funnel. 

This allows you to:

  • Build a strong digital marketing foundation – social media campaigns and PPC are also keyword-focused 
  • Boost your content strategy 
  • Create an ongoing SEO plan focused on your buyer’s intent
  • Produce unique, educational and conversational copy, while also identifying content gaps to improve your content
  • Avoid writing content blindly 
  • Satisfy search intent

Increases Leads and Conversions

If your goal is to attract leads and like-minded customers, you have to learn their language. Keyword research helps uncover the words and search terms your audience is using, so you can write specific content for them. This level of targeting maximises your conversation rate because your copy is attracting the right people at every stage of their buying journey. 


Keeps Your Business Relevant

Keywords determine what your business is known for. 

When you create content relevant to your user’s search intent, you show up higher in the search results making your brand more connected.  

Here’s why:

  • Best answers come first, therefore your content needs to be relevant to rank 
  • By doing keyword research early, you can analyse what websites are currently ranking and be in a better position to understand your user’s search intent

Google search results for 'copywriter in Perth' showing a map of Perth and the top copywriters listed, with The Little Typewriter as number 2

Allows You to Understand Market and Search Demand

It’s one thing to identify your audience, but unless you recognise how they search too, you won’t be able to create content for them. 

Keyword research starts with your target market. 

  1. What problem(s) they are trying to solve
  2. How they search for these solutions

Once you grasp this, you need to analyse what information you should create to meet their demand and ensure there’s a big enough audience for your efforts. Search demand reveals the estimated search volume (traffic) for your business and industry, which is key to the success of any digital marketing project. 

An office desk with a laptop, notebook and pen, and a collection of green plants and vines

Search queries also tell a story and can provide an endless source of quality content ideas – all of which help you serve your users better. 

Every Internet search has a need behind it, even if only informational. Eventually, this need will translate into a transactional search – if your content and products or services fit with the user’s need. At the very least, it’ll keep your business at the forefront of their minds when they’re ready to make a purchase or use your services.


Encourages Organic Search 

No matter how valuable your content is – if it’s not optimised or you’re using search terms with no volume, your website won’t perform properly. 

You’ll also risk publishing topics with little or no interest to your users, or investing in content creation for search terms that are too competitive. Both are costly mistakes. 


Google Search Console keyword research tool showing 905k impressions and 2.5k clicks

4 Quick Keyword Research Tips

There are plenty of tools for keyword research and the search demand process.

1. Know what you’re already ranking for

If you’re updating your website, find what keywords you already rank for so you can find new related search terms to target. 

You can use tools like Google Search Console, SEMRush, UberSuggest and Keyword Planner (Google AdWords).

2. Use long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are made up of three to five words. Now Google places more emphasis on semantic search, keywords have evolved from words to phrases. Semantic search allows users to search entire sentences to find what they’re looking for. Look at questions people are asking online and consider longer phrases. 

For example: ‘best photographer near me’ over ‘Perth photographer’.

3. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes

The only way to satisfy the needs of your customers is to think like them. Understand the context behind their search queries and you unlock content ideas to solve their problems with.  

For example: ‘eco coffee pods’ or ‘stainless steel coffee pods’ give more context over ‘coffee pods’. 

4. Combine keyword research with competitor research

Study websites within your industry and see if there are relevant search terms you could use. You can manually search for keywords by viewing the source code or Ahrefs and UberSuggest allows limited free reports to see how your competitors are positioning. Use competitor research to identify any content gaps too. 


Wrapping Up

As a general rule of thumb, you should revisit your content and SEO strategy every 6-12 months. It’s not a one-time deal, because the needs of users are constantly shifting. Make sure you monitor your site and look for changes in search behaviour each month. 

Not sure where to start? Get in touch to learn more.


 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Jayde | Copywriter Prodigy (@the.littletypewriter)


the little typewriter.
Excellent
5.0
Based on 17 reviews
review us on
We at SNS are incredibly grateful to Jayde for her outstanding work on our website. Her patience and dedication throughout the project made a huge difference, and the results are truly impressive. We’re excited about the possibility of working together again in the future!
Response from the owner: Thanks, Dana for taking the time to leave a review. It was great to help SNS Group with their new megasite, and write targeted copy for their healthcare and disability services. 🙏🏼
We had a great experience with Jayde Walker at The Little Typewriter. Jayde was very thorough and informative in our first discussion which enabled us to navigate our desired pathway forward. The end result delivered way above our initial expectations. Thank you Jayde, look forward to working with you again. Regards Chris Rocci - GM @ Smith Broughton Auctioneers.
Response from the owner: Thanks for your review and kind words Chris. 😊 It was great working with you guys and I hope to help you with more copy projects in the future. 🙏🏼
It was enjoyable and easy to collaborate with "the little typewriter copywriter". Jayde, is an amazing person to work with and her skills made our project come together within the set timelines. We highly recommend her for copywriting projects.
Response from the owner: Thanks Vimmi and Sanjay, it has been my pleasure helping you both with your web copy project. I wish you all the best with your new business and look forward to working with you more in the future 🙏🏼😊
Excellent job done! Couldn't fault in anyway. Great communication skills, very good understanding of what we wanted to achieve for our web site. Would recommend The Little Typewriter and Jayde's creative writing skills to anyone wanting to improve their online presence.
Response from the owner: Thanks so much Sue, it’s been a fantastic project to work on with you and Andrew. 😊 I look forward to seeing how your new words perform!
The Little Typewriter is a big helper! I’ve enlisted Jayde to work on a number of content campaigns in the small business space and she always nails the brief. Her copy is clean and clever. She is very responsive and professional. Highly recommend.
Response from the owner: Thanks, Adam. 🙏🏼 I’ve thoroughly enjoyed helping you with your content needs and look forward to working with you again in the future. 👩🏻‍💻
We recently worked with the little typewriter to produce web site copy for a new business (My Plan Assist) and we could not be more happy with the result. Jayde took the time to get to know our brand, and from there she conducted extensive research before translating our brief into amazing copy. Jayde was professional, knowledgeable and extremely responsive. We were so thrilled with the result that we immediately commissioned the little typewriter to create further content for our blog to further enhance our web site. Highly recommend without hesitation. Samone, My Plan Assist
Response from the owner: Thanks for taking the time to leave a review Samone. 🙏🏼 It’s been my absolute pleasure working with you both on your copywriting project. Excited to see the website live in the New Year and wish you all the best with your new venture 😊
I've worked with Jayde for our content writing projects and can highly recommend her for her quality of work and professionalism.
Response from the owner: Thank you, Bill. 😊 It’s been great working with you and Satwik for your outreach copywriting needs. I look forward to working with you both again soon.
Jayde just completed some fantastic content for our new website, we are extremally happy with what Jayde has done for us. Very professional and a quick turnaround time, we would highly recommend her services. Thank you Jayde - Shara & Trent
Response from the owner: Thanks for your lovely words guys 🙏🏼 I thoroughly enjoyed working with you both and look forward to seeing your new website live. 😊
Delivered top quality content that was helpful with brand exposure! If you need content that delivers a message contact Little Typewriter
Response from the owner: Thanks for your review, Kahil. It was my pleasure to assist Align Mat with new content. 🙏🏼😊
Jayde is one of the most professional and hard working people I have ever come across. Not only does she provide her clients with the highest standard quality of work, she does so with a positive and conscientious attitude. Jayde goes above and beyond for her clients to ensure that she provides exactly what they are looking for and no task is too much for her. Other businesses I have dealt with have not bothered to really get to know what myself as the client is looking for but the rare and unique thing about Jayde is that she really gets to know all her clients on a personal level and that is why you feel so comfortable with her. Jayde embodies everything a hard working, polite, professional should be. I would recommend Jayde a thousand times over and wish all the success in the world for her future projects and endeavours.
Response from the owner: Thank you Georgia for the kindest of words! 💚🙏🏼 really appreciate your support. 😊
Jayde was great. Delivered exactly what she said she would with great copy that suited my business perfectly.
Response from the owner: Thanks for hiring the little typewriter as your copywriter, Dave. 😊 Good luck with the new business! Look forward to working with you again.
Jayde is a wonderful person to work with, especially if you have absolutely no basic knowledge of websites or computer "stuff". Jayde is patient, witty, supportive and never once made me feel like an idiot. I'm an intelligent woman at what I do, but computers and all the jazz were way over my head. Thank God for Jayde!! And I now have a fab website.
Response from the owner: Thank you Dee :-) I'm so glad to have helped you with your website and wish you all the best on your new business venture.
I engaged the little typewriter to write and design a short report. The experience was ultra professional and the output was beyond my expectations for both content and graphic design. Strongly recommend!
Response from the owner: Thanks, Sharon for your feedback and for hiring me as the copywriter for your project. I look forward to working with you again in the future. :-)
Jayde is a highly talented writer. She takes the time to understand her clients and delivers quality work every time. Always a pleasure to work with.
Response from the owner: Thanks, Mitch. Much appreciated! I look forward to our next project together. 😊
I am so happy to have crossed paths with Jayde and her company the little typewriter. She's helped me craft a professional worded email that not only reflects me and my business but did so quickly and easily. I can highly recommend her not only for large copywriting projects but also for small delicate assignments. Looking forward to working with Jayde more in the future!
Response from the owner: Thanks a million Clare. :-) I'm so happy you liked the copy and look forward to seeing your business grow more. Always great working with you.
Jayde has done an amazing job with our spystore blog :) We will continue working with her for all our blog needs in the future :) Thanks
Response from the owner: Thanks for your feedback, Jing. :-) It's been a pleasure working on the blog to help you guys out.
We recently had Jayde Walker from TLC prepare a series of team member profiles for us for our new website. Would I recommend her services to others? . . . Absolutely!The service Jayde provided was excellent. We couldn't recommend her more highly, or be more pleased with the outcome.
Response from the owner: Thanks so much for taking the time to review, Andrew. I really enjoyed interviewing the team and working with you all. I'm excited to see the new website once it's ready and watch it grow. :-)
js_loader
3 Responses
  1. Bobby

    Hi Jayde,
    This is a really informative blog about Keyword Research topic – a must-read blog for SEO beginners to experts who are all looking to gain knowledge on SEO and writing for web. This article clearly explains what is needed to rank higher organically. Please keep posting these kinds of informative blogs in the future, they’ve been helpful. 🙂

Leave a Reply

Share via
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap